Telewest announces 10 meg broadband

Telewest is following the lead of NTL by increasing broadband access speeds to 10 meg.

From next month, the cable company is to begin work upgrading its network on a region-by-region basis. The work is expected to be completed early next year.

Once completed, punters currently hooked up to Telewest's entry-level 512K service will see their speed increased to 2 meg. Those currently hooked up to 1 meg will see their speed accelerate to to 4 meg while the rest will get the full 10 meg.

Prices will remain the same, which means a 10 meg service should cost around £35 a month.

Said Eric Tveter, Telewest president and COO: "There have been a few ISPs making a fuss about 2Mb services recently, but that often represents the maximum speed they can offer at the moment.

"We're making 2Mb our minimum speed and we'll also be offering a choice of affordable 4Mb and 10Mb services for more demanding internet users.

"What's more, our customers will be able to make full use of this extra bandwidth because we won't be introducing caps and all the new speeds will be available across the network."

Which is different to the speed upgrade announced by NTL earlier this week. It plans to give all its punters 10 meg broadband but they are to be charged for how much they use. ®